This background note provides some examples of research on neurodegenerative diseases supported through the EU's Research Framework Programme.

1)Research on Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in the EU (between 50 and 70% of all dementia). Dementia is a decline in mental ability that usually progresses slowly, in which memory, thinking, and judgement are impaired and personality may deteriorate. It usually develops slowly, and affects mainly people aged over 60. It is one of the most important causes of disability in the elderly.

PROMEMORIA

The PROMEMORIA project investigates the function of small molecules that participate in the process of memory formation by helping neurons interact with each other. The ultimate goal is to develop compounds with a beneficial effect on diseases involving cognitive impairment, including Alzheimer's.

The ADIT project wants to identify new molecules capable of reducing the mortality of neurons (the neuroprotectants) in Alzheimer's disease. The ultimate goal is to put the identified molecules in an efficient drug discovery pipeline and bring two drug candidates to the clinic.

The objective of the EDAR study is to develop ultra-sensitive tests to measure beta amyloid oligomers – the molecules believed to be responsible for Alzheimer's disease – in Alzheimer's patients.The ultimate goal is to obtain a test that not only provides an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, but can also assess if a patient is responding properly to a treatment or not.

Parkinson's disease is characterized by problems with body movements (tremor at rest, slowing of voluntary movements, muscle weakness etc). It is the second most prevalent of all neurodegenerative diseases after Alzheimer's.

NEuroStemCell

The NEuroStemCell consortium aims at paving the way for successful clinical trials of stem cell therapy for Parkinson's and Huntington's disease. Stem cells have the capacity, when cultured properly, to acquire the same properties as other cell types, including neurones. The goal of the project is to compare different stem cell sources and see which one is the most suitable to replace the neurones that are lost in these two diseases.

Coordinator

Prof. Elena Cattaneo

University of Milano

Department of Pharmacological Sciences and Centre for Stem Cell Research

The INDABIP project wants to identify small molecules (biomarkers) that would permit the early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease and that could therefore be used to develop better diagnostic tests. The second aim of the INDABIP project is to identify molecules playing a key role in the disease and to evaluate their potential as drug targets.

The EUROSCA network aims at developing a treatment for patients suffering from spinocerebellar ataxias (SCA). The project will develop international standards for the clinical evaluation of the disease in the form of a Core Assessment Programme for Interventional Therapies of SCA (CAPIT-SCA). It will also establish the European SCA Registry (EUROSCA-R), the world’s largest collection of information on SCA patients. This it will ensure standardised data acquisition and facilitate continuous enrolment of SCA patients throughout Europe.

This project aims at identifying novel molecules contributing to the development of Huntington’s disease in order to develop efficient drugs against the disease and novel biomarkers for early diagnosis. Biomarkers are molecules that show the presence of the disease.

BrainNet Europe is a "Network of Excellence" that collects human post-mortem brain tissue (i.e brain banking). Collecting such tissue is essential as this tissue can then used by researchers to carry out research on diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Expected results include the development of guidelines describing the best practice for brain banking, providing training in brain banking, and reaching out to neuroscience centres worldwide to promote future expertise in biobanking and central nervous system research.

The European Commission also encourages public and private partnerships in research. Launched in 2007, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is an example of such partnerships: it involves both the European Community and the pharmaceutical industry (EFPIA - European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations)

One of the projects selected within IMI's first call for proposals isPharmaCOGwhich aims at predictingcognitive properties of new drug candidates forneurodegenerative diseases in early clinical development.

The PharmaCOG project, with a co-founding of € 9M by the European Community and € 13M by the EFPIA partners, is one of the most ambitious projects tackling Alzheimer's disease ever funded at European level.

PharmaCOG offers a complete innovative approach to Alzheimer's treatment drug discovery. Indeed, the major obstacle to new drugs development is the promising pharmaceutical molecules failure rate through the medicines' development process, with regard to criteria such as toxicity and efficiency. PharmaCOG will define more precisely the potential of a drug candidate, reduce its development time and thus accelerate the marketing of promising new drugs in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Through the joint effort of 30 European partners (within 9 European countries) from 12 fundamental and clinical public research institutions, 5 innovative SMEs, 12 Big Pharma companies and 1 patient’s association, PharmaCOG will validate the tools needed to streamline and accelerate the discovery of drugs effective in treating Alzheimer's disease.